Sachal Vasandani

Between Chicago, where he grew up in a family of Indian origin, and New York, where he settled in the early 2000s, Sachal Vasandani’s career is part of the contemporary American vocal jazz landscape. Trained at the University of Michigan, he has developed a repertoire that blends rearranged standards, original compositions and covers drawn from pop and folk, with an aesthetic focused on lyrics, spare melodic lines and a frequent use of intimate moods. He made a name for himself on the New York scene before releasing Eyes Wide Open in 2007 on Mack Avenue, followed by We Move in 2009 and Hi‑Fly in 2011, records in which his singing relies on acoustic ensembles rooted in modern jazz. Under the shortened name Sachal, he further explored the intersections of songwriting and improvisation with Slow Motion Miracles in 2015. Across quartet, trio and voice‑and‑piano formats, Sachal Vasandani has collaborated extensively with instrumentalists from the new generation of American jazz and performs regularly in clubs and festivals in the United States and Europe, maintaining an active career as a singer‑songwriter and contributor to collective projects.